


Chance Encounters

by Mia_writes



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic, Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Airports, Crossover, Homophobic Language, Mentions of the foxes, Mentions of the gangsey - Freeform, Post-Canon, Ronan Swears, Ronan and Nicky meet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-16
Updated: 2019-05-16
Packaged: 2020-03-06 05:17:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18844396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mia_writes/pseuds/Mia_writes
Summary: Ronan Lynch and Nicky Hemmick are very different. But, after meeting in an airport, they get to talking while waiting for their boyfriends to arrive. They understand each other better than they think.





	Chance Encounters

**Author's Note:**

> I've never seen a fic focused on Nicky and Ronan, so I decided to write one.
> 
> Warnings for homophobia (including homophobic slurs) and Ronan-typical language.
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

Nicky Hemmick was nervous.

He should have been excited and somewhere, under his skin and inside his heart, he was. Erik was arriving today, after four months of living on separate continents. Nicky hadn’t seen his boyfriend since December, when he’d spent Christmas in Germany with Erik and his family. It had been a long four months since. The Foxes had made the playoffs, and their next game would determine if they made it to the finals. They had a real shot at making it if their fractured team could work together. That glimmer of hope had turned Kevin into even more of a nightmare than usual, and Nicky was glad they didn’t share a room anymore. According to Neil, Kevin was talking about Exy in his sleep.

Neil himself wasn’t much better — he was fraying under the pressure of being co-captain with Dan. The freshmen weren’t as outwardly cruel as they had been first semester, but the amount of snide comments they made about _Nathaniel Wesninski,_ or Neil’s ineptitude at Exy, or Neil’s relationship with Andrew had turned the team from a family to two armies locked in a constant battle.

Nicky wasn’t anxious to bring Erik into such a contentious environment. He knew Jack and Sheena would throw slurs at them, that Aaron wouldn’t be much better. Andrew would regard Erik coldly, assessing him to see if he was a threat, and would refuse to talk to them, even when asked direct questions. Kevin would berate Nicky for bringing a distraction into the country right before their big game, never mind that Erik was here to watch it. Nicky did have a little hope that Matt and the girls would treat Erik well — and how terrible was it that the only people he spared any hope for were the upperclassmen, and not his family of monsters?

So yes, Nicky was anxious.

It didn’t help that Erik’s flight had been delayed. He wouldn’t be here for another hour at least, which Nicky had only found out after he’d arrived at the airport.

Nicky stood on the coffee line at the Starbucks in arrivals. There were many other people around waiting for loved ones to land. A few feet away, two women cried as they hugged, a mother and daughter reuniting.

Nicky pushed away the sudden lonesome longing for his parents. Though he might be able to forgive them for all they’d done to him, he’d never forgive them for what they had done to Andrew. Besides, he had a family. So what if Aaron was distant and Andrew was apathetic? So what if neither of them appreciated anything he’d ever done for them? Nicky didn’t look after his cousins because he ever expected to be thanked for it. He looked after them because they were two people who deserved more from the world than they’d been given. Because they should have unconditional love, and not the kind Luther and Maria Hemmick offered, with hundreds of strings attached. He took care of them because he loved them and sometimes, just sometimes, he let himself believe that they cared about him in return.

It didn’t matter. It wasn’t important. He had Erik for that.

Nicky quickly gave his coffee order and moved to the side to wait for his drink. He stood over to the left, by the two teenaged girls waiting for coffee. On the right side was a beautiful piece of eye-candy that Nicky wasn’t dumb enough to stand near. If his shaved head, ripped black jeans, and the hooked tattoo at the base of his neck weren’t enough to scare someone away, the scowl on his face would do the trick. He looked like he could glare the world into submission but preferred to fight — Nicky recognized his stance from watching Andrew and Renee. The two girls beside Nicky were doing a bad job of pretending they weren’t staring at Eye-Candy, but Nicky couldn’t blame them. The man was beautiful in the way that all danger was beautiful — sharp lines and hard edges and the promise that you would feel alive, as long as you didn’t care about the price.

“Hey faggot,” said a voice.

Nicky didn’t make a habit of responding to rude slurs, but he turned to see who had said it and that was enough.

The men behind him were clearly all together, three of them, and for a moment Nicky couldn’t breathe.

_Four men outside Eden’s Twilight. Homophobic slurs. Fists then feet then spinning lights. The sound of his own ribs cracking. Then Andrew standing over him, blood on his knuckles. A pale and stricken Aaron kneeling at Nicky’s side. Andrew being dragged away in handcuffs and Nicky had to protect him, had to be a better guardian, but the world was dark and fuzzy and fading —_

Nicky was in an airport. It was bright and white and well-lit and the men wouldn’t attack him. He was four years older and four years tougher and proudly wearing a rainbow crop-top that said _move, I’m gay_.

“Do you gentlemen have a problem?” He asked innocuously, because if living with Andrew had taught him anything it was how infuriating it was when people didn’t react to your words.

“Yeah we got a problem,” said one of the men. He was tall and muscled and his hair was dirty blond. In another world, Nicky might have hit on him. “You don’t need to be out in public doing that disgusting gay shit.”

Nicky made a show of looking around, his eyebrows raised. “Wow. Was I making out with a guy in public? I thought I was waiting for my coffee at an airport. What you think I’m doing sure sounds like a lot more fun.”

The man scowled at him. “Fag.”

Nicky was unimpressed. “If that’s all you’ve got, I think I’ll go back to waiting for my coffee in peace.”

One of the other men piped up. “That’s not all you were doing. You were staring at that dude over there. That’s fucking disgusting. We don’t want to get a gay STD from your eye-fucking.”

Nicky was done with these assholes. Once upon a time, their words might have hurt. But Nicky had heard worse from his teammates, his first year on the Foxes. He’d heard worse from Jack, whose insults were at least more creative than those of the three Neanderthals in front of him. If Nicky could keep their words from hurting, he could sure as hell ignore the bigotry of three random guys in an airport whose total IQ was probably lower than Nicky’s Exy stats.

Nicky was about to turn away when he felt someone come up behind him. He turned to see Eye-Candy looming over him, murder in his eyes.

 _Shit_ , thought Nicky. Four angry men.

Things were about to go very, very wrong.

“Fuck off,” said Eye-Candy. Nicky didn’t flinch as he looked up to meet Eye-Candy’s eyes…

Only to find his gaze fixed over Nicky’s head at the three Neanderthals.

They seemed unnerved by the cold anger on Eye-Candy’s face.

“This homo here was checking you out,” said the blond Neanderthal, like he was defending his actions.

Eye-Candy blinked. “And?”

“And we were just helping you out, man,” said Neanderthal Two.

Eye-Candy’s smile was a sharp, vicious thing. It showed all of his teeth. “I don’t need help from assholes. Now fuck off.”

The three Neanderthals didn’t move.

Eye-Candy barked “Do you not understand English? I know it can’t be a hearing problem, because his shirt spells it out for you. How about Latin? Perite!”

The Neanderthals glanced between themselves and seemed to decide that fighting Eye-Candy wasn’t worth it. They turned and left.

Nicky wasn’t sure if he’d just been saved, or flung from the frying pan into the fire.

“You didn’t have to do that,” he said, because Andrew would be brave before a dangerous stranger. Then he turned on the charm,because Nicky smiled at and flirted with dangerous things. “But I suppose if getting into trouble with assholes like them makes pretty knights like you ride to my rescue, it can’t be all bad.”

Eye-Candy sneered. “You looked like you had it handled. But you were taking fucking forever to get rid of those dipshits.”

“They weren’t very good at taking a hint,” said Nicky. Then he smiled brightly and held out a hand. “I’m Nicky.”

Eye-Candy gave his hand a cold look. “Ronan.”

Nicky put his hand down, undeterred. “Well, Ronan, thank you for being my hero. If this was a few years ago I would have fallen deeply and irreversibly in love with you for your daring rescue, but as it is my heart has been promised to another, and your gorgeous blue eyes and bad-boy attitude can’t do a thing to change that.”

Ronan’s eyes were appraising, like he was trying to figure Nicky out, so Nicky turned up the wattage on his smile. He’d learned years ago that if you smiled and babbled like you didn’t have a care in the world, most people didn’t look any closer.

“Ronan!” Called the barista.

Ronan went to get his coffee. He came back with a cup in each hand, and thrust Nicky’s soy caramel macchiato in his face. Ronan’s coffee was indeterminable in a generic paper cup.

“Thanks,” said Nicky, genuinely surprised. This Ronan guy didn’t look like one for random acts of kindness.

Ronan didn’t respond, just took a sip of his coffee.

“So who are you waiting for?” Asked Nicky.

“My boyfriend,” said Ronan, like it was a challenge.

“Really?” Asked Nicky excitedly. At Ronan’s cold look, he continued, “Me too! My boyfriend Erik is flying in from Germany. He’s coming to see our game. Well, that’s his excuse anyway. Do you watch Exy? I play for the Palmetto State Foxes.”

Ronan’s gaze had turned sharper. More appraising. It wasn’t quite amused, but Nicky didn’t have another word for it. “You’re an athlete?”

“Yeah.”

“You don’t look like one” he tossed out flatly.

“I know,” said Nicky. He flashed a hand out to gesture at himself, encompassing everything from head to toe. “It’s hard to believe someone could be this gorgeous and stylish _and_ athletic.”

“Shouldn’t you have used up all your energy on your dumb sport?” Asked Ronan.

“Nah,” said Nicky. Without discussing it, they moved over to the seats in the waiting area. Ronan sat with his legs splayed out in front of his, carelessly slouched back into the seat. “I’ve got tons of energy. Have to, right, with the boyfriend coming home? We’re going to be busy all night.”

He waggled his eyebrows suggestively at Ronan. Ronan’s eyes flashed warningly.

“What?” Asked Nicky. “You’re not going to be up all night having hot sex with your boyfriend?”

Ronan didn’t answer. After two sips of his coffee in complete silence, Nicky looked over to see that Ronan’s cheeks and the tips of his ears and had gone pink. It made him look even cuter than before. Danger with a soft side.

Nicky started to smile.

“Fuck off,” snarled Ronan. “Just because I kept some fuckers from harassing you doesn’t mean I want to deal with your shitty conversational skills.”

Nicky didn’t waver in the face of Ronan’s meanness. He recognized the raised hackles for the defense mechanism they were, and briefly scanned Ronan’s forearms to check if there were knives hidden there. Possibly, under the leather jacket.

But Nicky had gotten good at seeing when someone was reaching for a knife after sticking his foot in his mouth about Andrew and Neil’s relationship one too many times. And Ronan was lashing out verbally, not physically.

“Well that’s what I hope to do with Erik, anyway,” he said. “Skype sex has nothing on proper sex. But the team is going to make it super difficult. This energy will probably be spent on fighting, not fucking.”

Ronan took another gulp from his coffee. “Me too,” he said.

“What?” Gasped Nicky. “Mr. Taciturn is actually deigning to talk to me?”

Ronan leveled a glare at him. “My fucking brother is getting fucking married. It’s a nightmare.”

“You don’t like the fiancee?” Asked Nicky.

“I don’t like my fucking brother,” said Ronan. “But it doesn’t help that his fiancee is also shit. Declan goes through girls like he’s speed-dating because they’re useful to him. It’s important to have a pretty girl on your arm at those events where everyone wears a suit and discusses their latest trips abroad or the accomplishments of their Ivy League brats. So he picks one out and keeps her for a month.”

Nicky nodded like he knew anything about those types of events. Like his life hadn’t been spent in dark clubs and sweaty courts and a warm cabin in Germany that felt like home.

“None of the girls ever actually meant anything. I didn’t even bother to keep up with their names. And then the latest blonde he found at some fashion show actually managed to stick around. And he’s fucking marrying her.”

“Maybe there’s more to her than you think,” said Nicky.

Ronan snorted. “Yeah, sure. And maybe Gansey has a good sense of style.”

“No, I’m serious,” said Nicky. “I know this girl, Allison.” He pulled out his phone and pulled up a picture on Allison’s instagram feed. She was on a beach, in a tiny pink bikini, giving the camera a sultry look over the top of her Prada glasses. A fruity daiquiri was clutched in one hand.

Ronan looked at the picture and his lips curled in cruel amusement. “She could be Ashley’s doppelgänger.”

“Yeah, but there’s more to Allison than this.”

Nicky pulled up another picture. It was Allison on the court, her body bent as she challenged her opponent, her racquet against the wooden floor. There was blood at the corner of Allison’s mouth where she’d taken an elbow earlier in the game, but her eyes were alive and her smile was one of wicked glee. Her expression said _come and get it_.

Ronan looked at this picture for a much longer time. Just when Nicky had given up waiting for a response, he spoke. “She’s a badass.”

Nicky grinned. “Hell yeah she is. On and off the court. She even got Neil to let her cut his hair. On top of somehow convincing Neil to let her near his exposed neck with sharp objects, she had to deal with Andrew glaring at her the entire time. If she’d so much as nicked Neil, Andrew would have slit her throat. But she stayed cool as a cucumber and gave Neil the best haircut that boy has ever had. He looked _fine_ afterwards.”

Ronan snorted. “She sounds like she’d get along with Blue.”

“Blue?” Echoed Nicky. “Is that a person?”

“Yeah,” said Ronan. “She’s Gansey’s girlfriend. She’s five feet tall and has a bad attitude.”

Nicky laughed. “You could be describing my cousins right now.”

He could tell from Ronan’s tone that, in spite of his words, he cared for Blue.

They were interrupted by the ringing of Ronan’s phone. Ronan scowled at the air, like the phone had personally offended him.

“What time is it?” He asked.

Nicky checked. “11: 47 am.”

Ronan made a face. “Fuck. It could be Adam.”

He picked the phone up and frowned at the number on the caller ID. Apparently, it was not Adam.

With a face like a man walking into a torture chamber, Ronan picked up the phone.

“What,” he barked. “Yeah…No, he’s not here yet… I’ll be back when I get back… Yeah, she does that.”

Suddenly his bored tone switched to an edged, angry one.

“No, you can’t fucking put her outside!… I know I let her roam around the Barns but she’s safe there. You’re in a big city. She could get lost or hurt, you know she doesn’t understand humans… I don’t care if she eats every piece of furniture you have! I don’t care if she eats your girlfriend’s fucking wedding gown! I’ll replace everything. Just do what I asked and look after my fucking kid while I’m gone for two hours. Jesus!”

Then Ronan hung up without waiting for a reply.

Nicky watched as he breathed heavily and cursed eloquently under his breath. Based on his first impressions of Ronan while waiting for coffee, he would have said that Ronan street raced and got into barroom brawls and fucked for fun in his spare time. He never would have thought he would have a daughter.

But from the sound of it, Ronan’s family was a little fucked up, just like Nicky’s.

“So,” he asked.“You have a kid?”

 

***

 

Ronan Lynch was happy.

He should have been frustrated and angry, and he was. His anger made his bones feel too tight and part of him itched for a beer in his hand and a pedal under his feet. This was the part of Ronan that had spent the past two days surrounded by wedding preparations: Ashley’s never-ending prattling about useless things like flower arrangements and Declan’s never-ending overbearing stare. Ronan had taken to hiding away with Matthew and Opal, and Declan had taken to dragging him out of whatever room he’d managed to make enjoyable. It was Declan’s existence that had pushed Ronan out of the house two hours too early to go to the airport, needing a steering wheel in his fist to keep from throwing it at Declan’s smug face.

Despite all of that, Ronan was happy. Adam was coming back. He had had to work through spring break in order to pay for parts for the shitbox. Ronan had visited, but only for a long weekend, seeing Adam in the snatches of time in between jobs and homework.

He missed when he’d had Adam home for Christmas break, and the four weeks of domesticity and festivity that they had shared. On Christmas Eve, Ronan had taken Adam to midnight mass where they’d sat on the pew beside a smiling Matthew and a somber Declan and a wayward part of Ronan’s heart had remarked that he had all of his family in one place.

Gansey, Blue, and Henry had halted their road trip to be home for the holidays and they had all spent Christmas Day at the Barns, drinking hot chocolate and laughing and falling in love. Ronan and Adam had sat on the same couch and sometime during the day Adam had let his defenses down and curled into Ronan’s side, laying his bad ear down on Ronan’s shoulder. Ronan had seen Blue using Gansey’s phone to take a picture of them, but he hadn’t found a single jagged edge inside himself to throw into a snarl or a glare.

Somewhere out there, there was a picture of Ronan and Adam, wrapped up together, soft and trusting and relaxed. Ronan wanted to burn it. Ronan wanted to frame it.

Ronan couldn’t wait to see Adam.

He’d decided to kill time at the airport by getting a coffee, and he could not have predicted the turn his day would take. He’d watched as a man a half-head shorter than him, with dark skin and dark curls, ordered a coffee. The man caught his eye because of his ostentatious clothes — a rainbow crop-top, tight jeans, and a bouncy jitteriness. Ronan hadn’t been surprised when inbred assholes had decided to pick a fight. What had surprised him was the man’s response. He’d been utterly unconcerned, like he dealt with large, intimidating bigots everyday and had long ago stopped letting them frighten him. That was when Ronan had realized that the rainbow clothing was just another kind of bravery.

He’d stepped in, unable to help himself. Honestly, he’d been hoping for a good fight. But the cowards had given up before a single punch had been thrown and Ronan had been left with a flirtatious chatterbox full of gratitude.

Somehow, he found Nicky’s prattling to be less annoying than Ashley’s.

Nicky had even become somewhat interesting.Ronan might have to look up this Exy sport that the blonde girl was playing in the picture. It looked violent and brutal and _alivealivealive_ , which were all of Ronan’s favorite things.

Then Declan had called, pissed that Opal was chewing on the furniture. He wanted to set her outside like an animal. Opal might be part goat, and she might be a wild thing, but she was also Ronan’s kid. He wasn’t going to let Declan lock her outside in a city she didn’t know and he hated that Declan thought he would.

“So, you have a kid?” Asked Nicky.

Ronan scowled at him. “Yeah.”

Nicky’s smile didn’t falter. “That’s awesome man. Erik and I want to adopt some day, after I’m done with college. We’re going to live together in Germany and raise an army of little rugrats.”

“You might not want an army,” said Ronan. He wanted an army of little kids, someday. With Adam. “They’re a fucking handful.”

Nicky winced. “Trust me, I know. I took my cousins in when they were in high school. If I can survive taking care of them, an army of kids is nothing.”

Ronan thought Opal’s teenage years would prove challenging, if she grew up like a proper human and not a dream-thing. So far, they couldn’t tell if she was aging.

“They can’t have been that bad,” said Ronan.

Nicky got a somber, heavy look in his eye. It was the first time his joyous facade had disappeared. “They were. Don’t get me wrong, I love them. But in the years since I took them in, I’ve sat in two different courtrooms as the twins went on trial. And both of those fucking cases were self-defense, not when they were actually causing trouble.”

Ronan whistled. “Damn. You and Gansey could trade war stories. He thought looking after me was bad. Wrecking his car and dropping out of school doesn’t look so bad in comparison, huh?”

Nicky snorted. “At least they both made it through high school. And into college. They’re at Palmetto with me.” Then he winced. “We did have a car crashing incident.”

Ronan could identify an open wound better than most people. The old Ronan would have poked and prodded at it to see if he could inflict damage. The new Ronan would have made Gansey proud as he carefully left the sore topic alone.

“They’re just so…” Nicky sighed. “We’re almost the same age. And my family has never been close, but…”

He seemed to be at a loss for words.

“Mine was,” said Ronan. “Didn’t make it any better.”

“I wish they would at least get along with each other,” said Nicky. “If they liked each other, I could feel like I’d fixed one stupid broken thing.”

Ronan shrugged. “You can’t fix other people’s broken pieces.” Gansey had taught him that. Gansey and his worried eyes after Ronan’s father had been murdered. Gansey and his hundreds of lectures that had fallen on deaf ears, words about going to school and drinking less and not disappearing into the night to inhabit the dark parts of Henrietta with Kavinsky.

Gansey could never have saved Ronan. Just like he could never have saved Adam, no matter how much money he tried to throw at him. Ronan and Adam had each fixed themselves, and then they had helped each other hold their newly-mended pieces together.

“Maybe,” said Nicky. “But they’re brothers. They’re twins. They shouldn’t hate each other.”

Ronan thought of Declan and how he’d known about the dreaming all along and still managed to ruin it between them. Maybe that wasn’t fair, though. Maybe it was Niall’s death that had ruined the Lynch brothers.

“Maybe being brothers is why they hate each other,” he said. “It’s not a fucking walk in the park to have someone think they can control your life.”

_Fists and arguments in the parking lot of Nino’s. Declan’s eyes, always hovering in the distance, waiting for Ronan to screw up._

“Yeah,” said Nicky. “That might be exactly their problem.”

Nicky had been glancing up sporadically at the screens above their heads, and now he bounded to his feet. “Erik’s plane landed!”

Ronan watched from his seat as Nicky went to stand by the doors when the newly-arrived passengers would emerge. It wasn’t long before before Nicky gave a gleeful shout and raced forwards, leaping into the arms of a tall blond man.

Ronan glanced at the flights screen.

Flight 4473 from Boston to D.C. — Arrived

He went to stand by the doors, trying to play it more cool than Nicky had. Nicky was still wrapped around his boyfriend. Erik had dropped his suitcase on the ground in order to catch Nicky and they were making out, completely uncaring that the whole world was watching.A few people stared with the bland interest given to any couple making out in public. A few gave the more disgusted stares of homophobes. Ronan bared his teeth at them and they quickly looked away.

Nicky and Erik, wrapped up in each other, didn’t notice.

Ronan glanced at the doors. Still no sign of Adam.

A few paces away, Nicky and Erik had finally separated. Nicky, for the first time since Ronan had met him, wasn’t babbling. He spoke in a slow, easy tone. It seemed like he was speaking German — Ronan couldn’t understand any of the words. But Nicky wasn’t weary or defensive, overly-energetic or flirtatious.

Ronan thought that this might be the real Nicky, the one left when all of his walls were stripped away.

He looked away. It was too intimate, though that had nothing to do with their lovers’ embrace.

And there was Adam.

His elegant features were unfocused, his eyes darting at the people in the room like he was searching for one in particular. Like he’d never doubted that Ronan would come get him. His hands, those long nimble fingers, were wrapped around a duffel bag.

He looked travel-weary but when his eyes locked on Ronan his features shifted. A smile, rare and beautiful, played over his lips.

Ronan knew his returning grin was a feral thing. He knew that Adam would see it for what it was — joy, not danger.

Adam approached and stopped a foot away from Ronan, dropping his bag to the ground.

“Look who finally fucking decided to show up,” said Ronan. His heart was pounding in his chest.

Adam’s smile only grew brighter. “I missed you too, asshole.”

He stepped in and grabbed the collar of Ronan’s leather jacket, tugging him down into a kiss. Ronan didn’t care that he was 200 miles from the Barns. This boy, tasting of coffee and store-brand toothpaste and smelling of gasoline, was home.

Adam’s kiss was all ferocity and hands pulling Ronan closer and desperation to be close after so long apart.

Ronan kissed him back for endless seconds before assuming control of the kiss. Ronan’s kiss was all gentility and Adam’s heart thudding against his and the care Ronan reserved for the things that he loved.

Ronan could feel the tension leaving Adam’s shoulders as he wrapped his arms around Ronan’s waist. The kiss ended and for a moment Ronan just gazed at Adam, soaking in the fact that he was here.

Then he stepped back and said “I’m not dealing with Declan anymore. We’re dropping your bag off at his house and picking up Opal to take her to a good pizza place.”

“I was hoping for some alone time,” said Adam in that daring, factual way of his. He knew exactly how to get under Ronan’s skin — he just liked to pretend he didn’t.

“Well too fucking bad, Parrish. Declan’s about to lose his shit about her eating his furniture.”

Adam frowned. “Lynch, did you bribe her to eat Declan’s house?”

Ronan snorted. “No.” Then he gave Adam an admiring look. “Wish I had thought of it though.”

Adam grinned. “Okay. Pizza. Later, I can show you how much I missed you.”

Ronan’s heart was an engine roaring to life.

“Fuck,” he muttered and pressed a quick kiss to Adam’s lips. He could feel Adam fighting a smug smile.

A whistle came from beside Ronan. “Damn, Ronan. You said you were waiting for your boyfriend. You didn’t say he was pretty as hell.”

Ronan met Adam’s amused, questioning look before turning to glare at Nicky. “Flirt with your own boyfriend.”

Nicky was pressed against Erik’s side, their hands locked together between them. Erik was looking fondly at Nicky, unconcerned by his boyfriend eyeing another man.

Once upon a time, Ronan had wondered if he would ever be that sure of someone.

“Oh I tell Erik how hot he is every day,” said Nicky.

“He does,” said Erik in heavily accented English.

“How do you know Ronan?” Asked Adam. His gaze on Nicky and Erik was appraising. Ronan could practically see the gears turning in his mind and he tried and rejected hypotheses.

“We met at Starbucks earlier,” said Nicky. “We tag-teamed scaring off some bigots and then we killed time until you two got here.”

Adam’s eyes lingered on Nicky, then lingered on Ronan. Ronan knew he was comparing bubbly, chatty, rainbow Nicky to his own taciturn, black-clad boyfriend. Ronan wondered if Adam only saw all the ways they were different.

Then Adam’s head tilted, the way it sometimes did when Cabeswater was rustling in his deaf ear. It was the position Adam assumed when he was shown the unknowable.

And Ronan knew that he understood.

“We should go,” he said.

Adam picked his duffel off the floor.

“It was nice to meet you,” said Nicky earnestly. “If you’re ever in South Carolina, you should drop by.”

Ronan shrugged. “We’ll see.”

Nicky beamed.

They walked together until the airport doors, Erik and Nicky hand-in-hand, Ronan and Adam standing close enough to brush shoulders as they walked.

When they reached the exit, Ronan and Nicky made eye contact. Ronan gave him a nod and Nicky returned it with a smile.

Then they went their separate ways.

**Author's Note:**

> It didn't make it into the fic, but Nicky's in D.C. for an away game. Which might be slightly unrealistic because I feel like D.C. would be in a different circuit? *handwaves* I needed them to be in the same airport.
> 
> I wanted to get them to talk about their complicated relationships with their sexualities and religion, but I couldn't figure out how to get it in. Neither of them are the kind to open up to strangers. Maybe if I ever write a sequel.
> 
> Kudos and comments are always appreciated!


End file.
